Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-12-24
DECREASE or DRUNKENNESS.
What Hospital Attendant Has Noticed.
Treatment OF ,Jirnian Cases.

Treatment Of Jimjam Cases.
ut Is my belief, said gentleman
who for tho pnst six years has been In
attendance six nights out of tho seven In
every week at the Chambers street hos
pital, ''that drunkenness il on The de.
crease. There is enough of it left,
goodness knows. but there is surely less
than there used to be. Out Of the
dispensary patients who five years ago
used 10 come here to be treated, it seemed
20 me nearly half OF them were suffering
from alcoholism of one kind or another,
They sat IN row on the benches. wait
ing their turn, and nearly every night
one Or more of them leaped into The
middle of the room with the jimiams,
and uttered whoop that would send The
rest flying out Of reach. That was SO
common then we thought nothing of it.
Now it rarely happens. | haven't seen
a jimjam case here this long time !
don't yelieve it is too much to say that
we do not get half the alcohol cases wo
used to. 1t certainly isn't because the
whisky is better, 1t is because there is
less OF 1t drunk. It must be. The
whisky they sell in the dives along the
water front is loaded with iimiams to
the very muzzle. If there was as much
of it drunk as there used to be there
would be just as many jimjam cases. /
think the buns must load up pretty reg
ularly now with stale beer. That only
makes the most of them soggy.
''Yet with the decrease in tho number
OF alcoholic cases treated, there has been
an enormous increase in the number of
patients who have been cared for here.
We have now turned our twentieth thou
sand for the year 1887, and there are
nearly three months of the wear left
This Is several hundred more than we
treated in all last year. Last wear the
total number treated was 10, 1897: the
year before that 1892. In 1884 81
almost doubled over the humber treated
in 1852. In 1882 we treated $3.50. and
in 1884 16,6o0. l. is not increase Of
population, Of course, which has done
this; it is increase in the popularity 81
the hospital. 1t has become known that
surgical cases, to which this hospital ia
devoted, are treated instantly. When 4
man is hurt and brought here, h. viii
lind surgeon ready for him and will
receive immediate attention.
''As to the jimjam cases | was speak
ing of, we only treat them temporarily.
and then, if they are bad, send them eli
to Bellevue. We of course have to send
to other hospitals all cases requiring long
nursing and attendance-that is, when
he patient is able to be moved Our
accommodations are limited here, and
we would be swampcd otherwise, and
nave no room or time to accommodate
those who are hurt and must be attended
to at once. When a jinnjam case turns
up we have mixture which we give.
and if that fails and the patient is really
IN for it, we get him quiet and then send
hlm where they arc prepared to handle
such cases. 1t very often happens that q
man will come in shaking all over, and
with the horrors after him, and THINKING
he is right on the verge, when he isn't,
we give him some of the mixture, and
,ell him to come back for more if he gets
afraid again that they are coming on.
In many cases they do not come back for
more than the second dose, and that zen
rally tides them over that particular
-lnlc. But, as said, we don't see more
han half the number Of these cases we
Used to. If it isn't temperance it is stale
seer. But | think there is much less
,razy drinking than there used to- be-
New York Sun.